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- ItemMultiscale fractal dimension analysis of a reduced order model of coupled ocean–atmosphere dynamics(Göttingen : Copernicus Publ., 2021) Alberti, Tommaso; Donner, Reik V.; Vannitsem, StéphaneAtmosphere and ocean dynamics display many complex features and are characterized by a wide variety of processes and couplings across different timescales. Here we demonstrate the application of multivariate empirical mode decomposition (MEMD) to investigate the multivariate and multiscale properties of a reduced order model of the ocean–atmosphere coupled dynamics. MEMD provides a decomposition of the original multivariate time series into a series of oscillating patterns with time-dependent amplitude and phase by exploiting the local features of the data and without any a priori assumptions on the decomposition basis. Moreover, each oscillating pattern, usually named multivariate intrinsic mode function (MIMF), represents a local source of information that can be used to explore the behavior of fractal features at different scales by defining a sort of multiscale and multivariate generalized fractal dimensions. With these two complementary approaches, we show that the ocean–atmosphere dynamics presents a rich variety of features, with different multifractal properties for the ocean and the atmosphere at different timescales. For weak ocean–atmosphere coupling, the resulting dimensions of the two model components are very different, while for strong coupling for which coupled modes develop, the scaling properties are more similar especially at longer timescales. The latter result reflects the presence of a coherent coupled dynamics. Finally, we also compare our model results with those obtained from reanalysis data demonstrating that the latter exhibit a similar qualitative behavior in terms of multiscale dimensions and the existence of a scale dependency of the statistics of the phase-space density of points for different regions, which is related to the different drivers and processes occurring at different timescales in the coupled atmosphere–ocean system. Our approach can therefore be used to diagnose the strength of coupling in real applications.
- ItemA climate network perspective on the intertropical convergence zone(Göttingen : Copernicus Publ., 2021) Wolf, Frederik; Voigt, Aiko; Donner, Reik V.The intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) is an important component of the tropical rain belt. Climate models continue to struggle to adequately represent the ITCZ and differ substantially in its simulated response to climate change. Here we employ complex network approaches, which extract spatiotemporal variability patterns from climate data, to better understand differences in the dynamics of the ITCZ in state-of-the-art global circulation models (GCMs). For this purpose, we study simulations with 14 GCMs in an idealized slab-ocean aquaplanet setup from TRACMIP – the Tropical Rain belts with an Annual cycle and a Continent Model Intercomparison Project. We construct network representations based on the spatial correlation patterns of monthly surface temperature anomalies and study the zonal-mean patterns of different topological and spatial network characteristics. Specifically, we cluster the GCMs by means of the distributions of their zonal network measures utilizing hierarchical clustering. We find that in the control simulation, the distributions of the zonal network measures are able to pick up model differences in the tropical sea surface temperature (SST) contrast, the ITCZ position, and the strength of the Southern Hemisphere Hadley cell. Although we do not find evidence for consistent modifications in the network structure tracing the response of the ITCZ to global warming in the considered model ensemble, our analysis demonstrates that coherent variations of the global SST field are linked to ITCZ dynamics. This suggests that climate networks can provide a new perspective on ITCZ dynamics and model differences therein.